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First day of class

746 views. 2013-2-25 22:21 |

Hello everyone,

I had my first day of class today. Registration has been a mess, I ended up in the speaking class (the class I had today). There is also a listening and reading Chinese class that I cannot take because they exceed an out of major class limit. I may be taking another elementary Chinese class as well but I am not sure yet. This class is a short 2 hours and fits with my 6 hour speaking class to reach my 8 hour limit. however, It may be too easy. You don't find the details of a class out until you get into it.

My class today was interesting, the teacher teaches only in Chinese. She cannot even speak English very well. My classmates include, 3 Japanese girls, a South Korean girl, a New Zealand girl, and a guy from Spain. The class structured seemed a little unorganized, but then again I was not following everything the teacher said in Chinese.

Other stuff

Pollution

The pollution is beyond bad, I'm having a hard time keeping enough masks on hand. They go bad in about half a week. To give you an idea I included a picture of old and new filters on one of my mask. I wore this mask 4 times out side. Once for a 3 hour tour of Beijing and then 3 other times for runs. I may in the future wear these filters a little longer since the websites says you can wear them to a dark grey. For now I switch this mask with a disposable mask I also have.

Gym

There is no western gym on campus, they have a "gym" but imagine what a 1950s Soviet gym looks and you get the idea. No machines, only free weights, random gymnastic equipment. The air is filled with a musty cigarette smell. Of course there are no treadmills. As a result I will be swimming a lot, a lot this semester;right now the pool is under renovation until March :(. I will also be taking advantage of every good air day I have to run outside. With mask of course.

Roommate

My roommate finally showed up today. His name is Li and he comes from Fiji. His parents however are originally from South China. He speaks both English and Chinese. Which is nice since I can hold a real conversation with him and still practice my Chinese. He is very friendly, I believe he is going to be a good roommate. Li is also a Graduate student in Computer Science.

Got to go an study some Chinese.

-Nicholas